Galleria

Galleria has been one the most successful and highly acclaimed catalogue series ever. The French magazine Diapason declared in April 1993 of one new set of releases: "Generally brilliant, this special price series from DG seems this time to have surpassed even itself!"

The series has concentrated on offering a broad range of repertoire; not only the standard repertoire, including early and baroque music (on Archiv Galleria), but also works of special interest. FonoForum wrote in July 1993: "Mostly good, in some cases excellent interpretations offer the young, keen (and inexperienced) listener a reliable and by now rich spectrum of repertoire from which to find a well-known favourite or something completely new."

Indeed it is in the choice of repertoire that Galleria has received particular acclaim. Gramophone wrote in September 1999 of CD 457 915-2, Fischer-Dieskau singing Schumann duets with Julia Varady: "This is a model of a mid-price reissue - interesting, neglected material performed to perfection with texts and translations provided."

Another such outstanding reissue of nonstandard repertoire, exceptionally interpreted by star artists, was CD 457 907-2, Kyung-Wha Chung and Krystian Zimerman playing violin sonatas of Respighi and Richard Strauss. Gramophone wrote of this in January 1999: "...a DG Galleria coupling of two little-known violin sonatas ... which hardly needs further recommendation from me, as on its first issue (2/90) it won a Gramophone Award. ... If you missed this first time round, here is a second chance!"